DIY: 2016 – Sexcentenary ‘Grey Matters’

THE DEADLINE FOR THIS DIY HAS NOW PASSED

If you identify as an older woman, join us in our refusal to be invisible through a demonstration of our collective power

Project summary

This is a project by and for older women. Grey Matters will be a collective process of devising and then performing a public action, over the course of a weekend. This will not be a ‘talk shop’— this will be a process that leads to group action.

Sexcentenary is comprised of older women, committed to the collaborative performance of gender, feminism and ageing. We aim to bring together our peer group. We will spend our first day sharing stories, focusing on the politic of everyday life, and coming up with ideas as to how we can collectively assert our agency. This will involve choosing a public site and devising a collective action that makes our point. On Sunday, we will carry out the action, then debrief and critique our performance. The weekend will employ humour, intelligence, anger, bloody-mindedness and a sense of the absurd. (In the past our actions have included dancing in a museum, taking a nap in front of 'Forever 21' in a shopping mall and using text in the form of small signs (“DO YOU SEE ME?”)

Participants

All women who consider themselves “older” will be considered.  We need to know:

• Age
• Previous experience with public live art (participants don’t have to have previous experience, but we’re curious)
• Three brief ideas: how might a group of older woman collectively and publically demonstrate that they are not invisible.  (200 words)
• Website (if you have one)
• Brief, free-form CV (200 words)

Dates, times and location

Dates: 8-9 October 2016
Times: 11am-6pm (Sat) and 10am-5pm (Sun) 
Location: Brighton
This DIY is supported by The Marlborough Theatre 
Lunch will be provided on both days

The artist

Sexcentenary is a collective of women, who identify as older, committed to the collaborative performance of gender, feminism and ageing. We span disciplines, have different approaches, are recent graduates or very experienced. We are a fluid group, with a membership that expands as needed, depending on the demands of a particular action. We want to be inclusive and collectively engage the power of older women in live art.